Taking Trump Seriously and Literally
“The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally,” Salena Zito wrote in The Atlantic in September 2016. Then, Zito’s analytical couplet seemingly explained some of the mystery surrounding Donald Trump’s meteoric rise in politics. But, despite whatever descriptive utility her dichotomy had seven years ago, it has none now. Now, everyone, friends or foes, disinterested bystanders or political activists (and those in between), best take Donald Trump seriously and literally.
Trump’s reaction to his most recent indictment demonstrates why Americans must take him seriously and literally. The twice-impeached and now twice-indicted former president responded by promising, if re-elected in 2024, to “go after” President Joe Biden and his family, indicating that a second Trump presidency would obliterate current standards of Justice Department independence.“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said Tuesday evening, hours after his arraignment on 37 counts in a federal courthouse in Miami. (Fact check: Both Bidens — Joe and son Hunter — are currently under investigation by the federal government.) Trump’s argument — echoed by numerous Republican shils — is that he was charged by the Justice Department only because he is Biden’s political opponent.
Trump frequently accuses his adversaries of actions and intentions that he either has already undertaken or intends to undertake. Among the adherents of the cult of Trump, none seem fazed by Trump’s inconsistencies. Most, if not all, of his base seem convinced that Biden “ordered” Trump’s indictment, though there is, of course, no evidence that Biden pulled any strings. But, many in the Trump orbit get their information from right-wing media more invested in pushing propaganda than in uncovering and revealing the truth. Those who live in an alternate reality are easily persuaded by chyrons — television graphics — such as the recent offensive one, under pictures of Biden and Trump speaking, on Fox News: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” (The official White House response was delivered by press secretary Karine Jean Pierre with a sly reference to Fox’s defeat in a recent defamation lawsuit: “So there are probably about 787 million things I can say about this.”)
It was, of course, President Trump who tried to politicize — “weaponize” in current right-wing lingo — the Justice Department. Trump viewed the attorney general as just another personal lawyer. Jeff Sessions — Trump’s first attorney general — angered his boss by recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Trump eventually fired Sessions for doing the right thing. Trump’s belief that the Justice Department existed to defend him — and go after his opponents — runs counter to the modern understanding of the department’s role, which was fashioned after the abuses of President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
Trump’s promise to use the Justice Department to “go after… the Biden crime family” dovetails with current thinking among right-wing ideologues on presidential power. Many on the right subscribe to a constitutional notion labeled the “unitary executive theory,” which holds the Congress cannot limit the president’s control of the executive branch of the federal government. This theory gives the president unlimited power to appoint and remove officials of the executive branch and denies Congress the right to enact reforms guaranteeing, for example, the independence of the Justice Department or protection for inspectors general probing possible executive wrongdoing.
One of the leading figures promulgating the “unitary executive theory” is Jeffrey Clark, the former top official in the Justice Department who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In the waning days of his administration, Trump tried to appoint Clark attorney general but the threat to resign by the rest of the department’s top leadership forced Trump to back down. Clark is currently under investigation for his role in Trump’s machinations to stay in power.
Clark, who would likely be appointed to a senior Justice Department position in a second Trump term, has written a paper titled “The U.S. Justice Department Is Not Independent.” Leaning heavily on the theory of the unitary executive, Clark claims that “the Justice Department can be no more independent of the President than the Department of Commerce or the Department of Health and Human Services.” Clark blames current officials of the Justice Department, the so-called “elite” print media, and “leftist pressure groups” for “the false paradigm that the Justice Department should be independent of the President.” The hypocrisy here is obvious: Clark and other devotees of the “unitary executive theory” are pushing a constitutional interpretation that justifies presidents using law enforcement to further their own ends while condemning the current administration for allegedly “weaponizing” the Justice Department.
It is doubtful that Trump has ever read the Constitution. It is probably safe to say that he is unfamiliar with The Federalist Papers, which elucidate and elaborate on what the Framers intended. But, while Trump may not understand the intellectual underpinnings of the “unitary executive theory,” its justification of a strong executive provides theoretical backing for his natural authoritarian bent.
So, we should take Trump seriously and literally when he promises to “totally obliterate the deep state.” The existence of a so-called deep state — consisting of thousands of unelected federal officials working to secretly manipulate government policy and undermine elected officials — is axiomatic among many on the right. Attacking the deep state provides a convenient excuse for Trump’s failures to enact much of his agenda while president. In late 2020, Trump issued an executive order restructuring the federal workforce, making it easier to fire thousands of federal workers. Last year, Trump endorsed a plan that identifies 50,000 federal employees who would be ousted in a second Trump term.
Trump is signaling his intentions if elected to a second term. Undermining the “deep state” while relying on the “unitary executive theory” of executive power would allow Trump’s authoritarian tendencies to expand and solidify. Americans should take Trump seriously and literally; failing to do so could mean the death of democracy.
Posted June 16, 2023